SEWA Bharat
SEWA Bharat is a federation of seven independent SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) offices and four new women’s association being developed by SEWA Bharat. SEWA Bharat currently works in nine Indian states and is India’s largest membership-based organization with total membership of about 1,133,000 women working in the informal economy. SEWA Bharat was formed in 1982 to facilitate the formation of new SEWAs across the country and to nurture their development into full-fledged organizations. Together they form SEWA Bharat, a federation with the mandate to highlight the issues of women working in the informal sector, and to strengthen the capacity of the organizations that serve them.
SEWA Bharat’s strategy is an integrated approach that includes union activity, social security, micro-finance including insurance, capacity building of women workers, education, media outreach, and lobbying the government for better policies at the national and state level. Each SEWA is engaged in organizing women in the informal sector based on Gandhian principles and values. SEWA uses the models of trade unions cooperatives and the women’s movement together to provide self-employed women with a platform to have bargaining power and financial services including micro-finance and access to markets.
Advocacy for self-employed women, members of SEWAs throughout India, becomes easier due to the collective strength of SEWA Bharat. Through SEWA women become stronger and more visible and their social and economic contribution becomes recognized nationally.
Last updated on Friday, November 14, 2008.
